SANTA FE SPRINGS – Sierra Sauer did not bond much with her first child.

Now, more than seven months pregnant with her second child, she hopes to be a better mother with the help of counseling and a childbirth class taught by a doula at the Los Angeles Centers for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Family Foundations Program.

A doula gives emotional support to women in labor, said DeAnne Todd, a volunteer doula, who for the past three years has led weekly child-care classes inside a cozy living room at the program’s Santa Fe Springs facility.

The Los Angeles Centers for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Family Foundations Program is an alternative-sentencing facility for mothers and expectant mothers who have been convicted of nonviolent narcotics-related offenses.

“The role of a doula is strictly emotional,” Todd, 44, said. “A doula can help you make decisions on the spot in the hospital. Sometimes it is just a comforting look. Sometimes I just get ice.”

Sauer was placed with the Family Foundations Program after convictions for narcotics violations and prostitution. After the birth of her first child through a cesarean section, state welfare officials took her daughter into protective custody.

“In a way, I resent my daughter because I didn’t really give birth to her,” the 20-year-old from Oakland said at Wednesday’s class. “This is the first time I’m going through it all.”

Through the Family Foundations Program, Sauer can keep her baby with her. She also is receiving group and individual counseling.

At some jails and prisons in the state, women inmates are shackled to a bed during childbirth. Afterward, they can see their newborn only during scheduled feedings and until the infant is placed in foster care.

At Wednesday’s class, Todd told Sauer and two other women that they have rights in the delivery room.

“You have the right to know what the doctors and nurses are doing,” she said. “But if you’re nice to them, you’ll have more success. Ask them for help.”

During her last labor, Sauer said, she was so panicked that she couldn’t talk.

“They kept putting an oxygen mask on me and I kept taking it off,” she said. “I was sweaty and I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t get my words out. I panicked because I’ve been suffocated before.”

Sauer’s experience was similar to one Todd had 12 years ago, which inspired her to help women with criminal records and substance-abuse problems.

Her sister was addicted to narcotics when Todd took her to the hospital to give birth, she related.

“When you go to the hospital in labor and have had no pre-

natal care and are addicted to drugs, they treat you awfully. They treated my sister horribly,” Todd said. “I was mad at her, too, but there’s a certain amount of kindness and decency she deserves.

“I work down here every week to rescue my sister.”

On Wednesday, she used diagrams, a baby doll and a plastic model of a pelvis to explain the complex process of childbirth.

“I was a heroin addict through my whole pregnancy,” Sauer said of her first birth. “I didn’t want to believe or admit I was pregnant. I’m doing everything I can to be more prepared. I’m going to be able to keep this baby.”

Todd said the bond between mother and baby created during childbirth affects the child for the rest of its life.

“How a baby is born affects how the mother feels toward the baby,” she said. “If mom is stressed and sad, baby is, too.

“You can make a difference in how a person affects the world and interacts with other children if you help the mutual bonding between child and parents. It’s hugely important to the world. That’s why I do it for free.”

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